With modern vehicles, faultfinding, for example in the event of a breakdown, can be difficult and time-consuming. At the same time, questions can arise concerning guarantees and whether the vehicle has been used correctly or whether the vehicle has been tampered with in any way by the user. In addition, it can be advantageous to be able to ascertain quickly whether the replacement of a vital component, such as a turbo-compressor, has resulted in a problem's resolution.
These problems occur in particular with heavy vehicles such as tractor-trailer trucks (lorries) used for long-distance transportation, and which are therefore subject to intensive use. In addition, these vehicles are optimized for being used within power ranges that are relatively close to the maximum power. Very high demands are also made regarding fuel economy for these vehicles.
There is thus a need for systems and methods to continually record engine data. An example of a known system for this purpose is a system that continually logs data until a memory unit is full, and after which the oldest recording in the memory unit is successively overwritten. In this manner, historical data is available going back over a certain period of time. The length of this period of time is determined by the storage capacity of the memory unit, but it is economically advantageous if this capacity can be reduced.